I have on order for mid Nov delivery a F31 330d msport in estoril blue,black leather, 19" alloys, m brakes, sat nav pro, heated seats, tinted windows, and a few more bits. Blown the budget already so just wanted some expert opinions on if I should ditch the brakes and add the Hk speakers. Thanks in advance.

Surely the stock brakes on an F31 330d should be more than man enough for the job unless you're taking the car to the track - in which case ditch the brakes and go with HK cos you'll enjoy the benefits every time you listen to music.

Thanks for replays guys, I notice that rjberry you have the brakes and 19s, do the wheels get black quicker from brake dust and are the brakes noticeably different? Also is the Hk sound a lot different from standard.

Thanks for replays guys, I notice that rjberry you have the brakes and 19s, do the wheels get black quicker from brake dust and are the brakes noticeably different? Also is the Hk sound a lot different from standard.

The wheels do seem to attract the brake dust. I happened to notice the other day that there was a very noticeable dust layer on them and that was only after 3 weeks. I personally haven't noticed a difference in brake performance but then the most I seem to brake is coming off the slip road at a gradual rate rather than having to slam the anchors on. Cornering is no different, I had a loan car yesterday which seemed to react the same. For normal day to day driving I would say there is no difference. Cosmetically though, they look great

I'm still tweaking the settings on the HK system to get the best out of it but as the loan car had only the bog standard stereo I was at least able to compare. The quality of the output was definitely different. I wouldn't call myself an expert in the field but the richness of the tones from the HK system made the normal one average in comparison. If you listen to the radio a lot then maybe you'd not notice so much but otherwise I'd go HK.

So to sum up, normal day to day driving with M Brakes I would say you're getting more of a cosmetic boost to the car. If you listen to music a lot in the car I would say HK is best. If you listen to the radio and drive reasonably non aggressively, save your money and get neither

I don't do a lot of driving in the car as I work overseas! My wife and kids do the majority of the 8/9000 miles a year. When I,m home I only listen to the radio, sometimes my iPod but never too loud. In my e93 convertible I only have the basic stereo system as well and I find it ok. So to be honest I am really only putting the brakes on because they look better and also the the same reason for the Hk speakers as they look awesome as well. So to say save my money and have neither you are probably right. You have given me a lot to think about but thankyou for your detailed reply. Probably might stick with the brakes and ditch the idea of the Hk.

I don't do a lot of driving in the car as I work overseas! My wife and kids do the majority of the 8/9000 miles a year. When I,m home I only listen to the radio, sometimes my iPod but never too loud. In my e93 convertible I only have the basic stereo system as well and I find it ok. So to be honest I am really only putting the brakes on because they look better and also the the same reason for the Hk speakers as they look awesome as well. So to say save my money and have neither you are probably right. You have given me a lot to think about but thankyou for your detailed reply. Probably might stick with the brakes and ditch the idea of the Hk.

It's never easy when you have to balance the budget with the option list. It's got to be something you're happy with. Once you have everything you really want then the other options are just luxuries. I used my wife as a sounding board for my option list just to have a bit of a sense check when needed.

As your wife and kids will be the main beneficiary, what would they prefer? Maybe that's a silly question as my wife would just prefer to save the money for a new pair of shoes or a handbag Can you tell she's not here at the moment to see me typing this??

Can't talk to wife about it because she would opt for shoes and handbags as well...! She thinks I,m getting the 320d msport still as that's what I ordered in front of her at the dealership. When I got back to France I ordered the 330d msport. Doubt she will notice the difference. In my dealership they had a 320d msport with 19s and m brakes and my son who is 13 loved them, and said dad you have to get them, that's when I added them to original order and the wife said they are not worth the £12 a month extra so she said waste of money. So my son will be over the moon with the brakes! If only I can get away with spending £15 a month more I,ll get both and be done with it.

Can't talk to wife about it because she would opt for shoes and handbags as well...! She thinks I,m getting the 320d msport still as that's what I ordered in front of her at the dealership. When I got back to France I ordered the 330d msport. Doubt she will notice the difference. In my dealership they had a 320d msport with 19s and m brakes and my son who is 13 loved them, and said dad you have to get them, that's when I added them to original order and the wife said they are not worth the £12 a month extra so she said waste of money. So my son will be over the moon with the brakes! If only I can get away with spending £15 a month more I,ll get both and be done with it.

As long as you add the model designation deletion onto the option list you will probably get away with it, just make sure you don't leave her to sort out the insurance

The brakes do look that extra bit special. The sound system sounds that extra bit special. The option list can sneak up on you though, I know from experience I figured I'm going to enjoy this car and that being the case it was worth paying a bit more here and there for. Ok, there were a few more toys I'd have liked but none of them were on the "must have" list. I don't regret any of them and after having a loan car which was a Sport with only an automatic gearbox I really missed the extras I'd put on!

You could always go back to your dealer and see if you can get them to massage the figures in such a way that the HK system is a lot easier on the budget?

I,ll try my dealer first I think to like you say massage the figures? Do you mean put up the residual a little? They have not given me much just £500 good will and the 5 year pack, also they will pay my other credit off my old car but then they always say they have given you a good price, but mercedes did the same. They said BMW won't let them discount a car not produced as this was at the end of August I started the process.

I,ll try my dealer first I think to like you say massage the figures? Do you mean put up the residual a little? They have not given me much just £500 good will and the 5 year pack, also they will pay my other credit off my old car but then they always say they have given you a good price, but mercedes did the same. They said BMW won't let them discount a car not produced as this was at the end of August I started the process.

I ordered my M Sport back at the end of May when they weren't even due to be released until July and I managed to get a nice discount. It may not have been as good as I could get now but all the same at the time of ordering I was happy. I then went back later on and got the APR lowered to match the 3.9% on offer at the time and even then went back and got the residual increased. I think a dealer will always tell these little white lies and then reluctantly do what they can to help the sale through.

I'm not certain the dealer can artificially massage the residual figure, but by changing the annual mileage you can do that yourself.
For example if you have gone for 10k miles p.a. you could reduce it to 8k miles which puts the residual up. You need to make sure this is what you want to do though, as come hand back time, if it has got more miles on than the agreement states, you end up paying a pretty hefty mileage 'fine'. The opposite is also true, if you want to make sure there is lots of positive equity in the car at the end (to trade in as a deposit) you can put the mileage up, which reduces the residual value.

I,ll try my dealer first I think to like you say massage the figures? Do you mean put up the residual a little? They have not given me much just £500 good will and the 5 year pack, also they will pay my other credit off my old car but then they always say they have given you a good price, but mercedes did the same. They said BMW won't let them discount a car not produced as this was at the end of August I started the process.

My dealer also said BMW won't let them discount a car that had has not been built as yet, (330d se) ordered 30/6/2012,
but I still managed to get 10% off without too much hassle,
they said it was a very strong deal, I said you can always improve on it, which didn't go down to well, made out that they were gifting me it